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with 1 I was trying to bring some color into the page outside of the current color scheme,**but no matter what I have tried - I never liked how things looked. do**you have a suggestion?
2 - is the same idea as 1, but with a color from the page's color scheme. i am not sure wether I like it any or not - I am afraid it is too blurry and hard on the eyes.
3 - is an attempt to continue with the page's theme,**but I truly think it doesn't work at all, since I am**already specifying a dimension/perspective for the page with the pre-existing shadows/lighting effects from the "order today" button, which the third look is the exact opposite of.
4 - is another try with the same theme. I like it much better then number 3 and consider putting the text into one line. My problem with it? it IS the same theme, and I think I need something more different and exciting.
5 - generally nice, but boring.

The images are not tweaked to perfetion (like for example, I am**not sure wether to have or not to have the bevel effect on the text), but I believe it will depend on a design I choose for that button.

Humph, yea, kinda tricky one this, as you want it to stand out of course, but also it must gel with the rest of the styleway of the site.

You are right that 3 doesn't work, as the global light on the drop shadow is reversed, and it just looks wrong. On 2 you also you hit the nail on the head... it is too light, you probably want to try this idea with the darker red colour to get a better idea... probably a bit of a non starter though. I also kinda like 4, but it looks funny as the top one is not as high...just doesn't gel too well, but like the style.

Personally I like no5 best, as it uses the same colour ways, AND stands out. Boring...maybe, corporate...yes! This works in my opinion, but I'm not too keen on the gradient (thats a personal thing though!).

Another idea to try is to use (as you have) the lighter colour on the link above, and the darker BUT SAME STYLE image on your new button... this should make it stand out a little better.

I would be interested in what other colours you have tried out, I would suggest a kinda dark aqua greenish colour if you wanted a contrasting colour...same kinda saturation as the darker red. This should work well, and you could use it for your 'new from Orbis' button. Alternativley a nice kinda ochre/dark yellow/goldish colour would work too... not too light though so you can read it on the white background!

It's a shame that this has to go onto two lines, but you are a good designer to keep all the type the same size (nice and consistent)... it would have looked very odd if you had tried to cram this in, and this message needs to be nice and clear!

One final point - from a navigation point of view, it seems to almost justify it's own link at the top... or DEF in the the products section (also missing). Surely your client wants to 'show off' their new products, and they could be easily missed if they are just on the 'home' page, as once in the site, you browse around and don't really click on home...just a thought!

On a second note, your page is really heavy on the images. There're a lot of places I think you'd be better served with CSS. Investigate that route, first -- if you don't use it on this project, you'll probably need to later.

Oh and also, always, always use alt tags! And, I'll stop now before I get into 'review mode.' ;-)

Thanks for the tips everybody

i really think that the buttons should not be the same. I did like my "order now' button, but at the time it was created it was the only one on the page and I absolutely did not realse that it will be such a pain to add another button to that page, so .. I have changed the concept a little. what do you think of http://www.orbusinc.com/index6.html

Ian,
I know I have mles to go with my coding. I do see where CSS would do a lot of good for me with this site: like using it to position the blocks of text, instead of having so many "spacer" images. Any other things you think I could have used it for? I do have an external stylesheet to define the fonts, background and links for the site, so it is a start
This site was created about a year ago and it was my second site ever (besides the personal one). I did have some thoughts of going back and reviewing my code since I know so much more now then i did at the time of this site's creation. I even wondered if I should eliminate the tables completely and go with divs and positioning.
I also wonder if your "review mode" was for the visual or the coding side of the site.

valeria, ignore Ian.. hehehe hes just an old grup who likes everything "perfect". I think the button you have for "new from orbus" looks really clean and fits in well. however, i think what you have done with the "order today" is not as good, visually it does look good, but there is no idication by looking at it that it is a link, because it fits in so well with the text underneath, I would make the order today a text link, and keep the underline below it so that poeple will distiguish it as a link.

if you do want to use an image, and not a text link, then why not use the same button you have used for the "new from orbus"

You should try to use markup instead of images when you can as a general rule.

The "review mode" comment wasn't in response to you work at all, but the review policy here at SitePoint. Most of the time an advisor will close a thread if it gets too reviewish. You'd then have to go through the entire review process and meet the requirements. I just didn't think that was fair to do to you because I couldn't keep my mouth shut. ;-)